• The first definitive box set of the complete Archie Bell & The Drells albums, plus an additional disc of Bonus Tracks.
• With sleeve notes by journalist Charles Waring contributor to MOJO, Record Collector and uDiscover Music.
Archie Bell was born in 1944 and hailed from Houston Texas, he formed the band The Drells at high school. In the mid-60s they were billed as Archie Bell & The Drells. At the age of 22 Archie was drafted into the army, but before he was shipped out his roommate and fellow Drell Billy Butler came in the room, put on the radio, and started dancing to music, showing off the moves of the latest dance craze. Remembered Bell: “I said to him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m doing the Tighten Up.’ It cheered me up and made me forget about my problems with Uncle Sam. So we decided to write a song about the Tighten Up.” The record took off and was picked up by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, three months into Archie’s two-year stint in the U.S. Army. In order to capitalise on the single’s success, Atlantic wanted an album post-haste, but the group didn’t have enough unreleased tracks in the can to fill an album. Luckily, Archie Bell was granted leave to return to the US specifically to record. “I travelled from Germany two times on a weekend pass because we didn’t have that much material,” he recalled. “I flew to New York, recorded all day Saturday, got on a plane Sunday, and flew back to Germany before reveille.” “Tighten Up” went to #1 on the Hot 100 and earned the group a Gold Disc. But Archie Bell & The Drells were not a flash in the pan, other notable hits for the group were ‘(There’s Gonna Be A) Showdown’, ‘Dancing To The Music’, ‘I Can’t Stop Dancing’ and ‘Here I Go Again’ all hits on Atlantic Records. Having worked with legendary producers Gamble & Huff over the years it seemed an obvious move to their Philadelphia International label, where they scored more Hits like ‘Let’s Groove’, ‘Soul City Walking’ and ‘Strategy’ to name but a few.
